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KNFSD File Cache Arrives: A Blazing-Fast NFS Cache Bridging On-Prem and Cloud!

AWS What's New ★★★★ View Markdown
#aws#infrastructure#devops

Hi there, it's Shiichan! Today's story is about a new open source solution that could make file sharing between on-prem and the cloud a lot faster.

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

This is from AWS What's New. AWS announced KNFSD File Cache, an open source, Apache-2.0 licensed solution for deploying a scalable, high-speed Network File System (NFS) cache on AWS.

It mounts exports from source NFS servers wherever they live — on-premises, another AWS Availability Zone or Region, or even another cloud over AWS Interconnect — and re-exports them to NFS clients inside AWS. It works with Amazon FSx for OpenZFS, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, and any other NFS v3, v4.1, or v4.2 compliant filer.

Why it matters

Read-heavy, bursty compute workloads like VFX rendering, simulation, financial services, health and life sciences, microprocessor design, weather forecasting, and energy often get bottlenecked by distant on-prem file servers. KNFSD File Cache caches frequently read data in memory and on local NVMe storage, so files cross the high-latency link only once and are then served to large compute fleets at local VPC speed.

What changes

It's built on standard Linux kernel technology — nfs-kernel-server handles NFS re-export, FS-Cache provides the persistent disk cache — so it fully supports the native NFS client-server protocol, including byte-range reads and writes, synchronous and asynchronous writes, and both write-through and write-around modes.

Here's the deployment flow:

  • Build the cache AMI with Packer
  • Deploy the cluster with the included Terraform module
  • Cache nodes run in an EC2 Auto Scaling group (AMD, Intel, or AWS Graviton instances)
  • Traffic is distributed via DNS round-robin or a Network Load Balancer, with optional autoscaling based on active NFS client connections

Dive Deep

Operationally, there's a CloudWatch dashboard backed by an OpenTelemetry-based agent that surfaces more than 70 metrics. There's no licensing cost — you only pay for the AWS resources you consume. It's currently in preview and available in all AWS Regions.

Wrap-up

  • KNFSD File Cache is an Apache-2.0 licensed open source NFS cache you deploy on AWS
  • Caches NFS servers from on-prem, other Regions/AZs, or other clouds, and re-exports to clients inside your VPC
  • Works with Amazon FSx for OpenZFS/NetApp ONTAP and any NFS v3/v4.1/v4.2 compliant filer
  • Build the AMI with Packer, deploy the cluster with a Terraform module
  • Comes with a 70+ metric CloudWatch dashboard, no licensing cost

If you're running read-heavy, bursty compute workloads like VFX or simulation on AWS, this one's worth a look.

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